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Randy Kraft
Randy Steven Kraft, a.k.a. "The Score-Card Killer", is a convicted serial killer and one of three killers who were believed to a single serial killer, "The Freeway Killer". Background Randy Kraft was born in 1945 in Long Beach, California, but his family moved to Orange County when he was three years old. He fit right in with the ultraconservativism of the area and was later described as having been extremely right-wing. Considered intelligent and scholarly (later testing with an IQ of 129), he graduated high school in 1963 and enrolled in Claremont Men's College and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps. For a while, he stayed conservative, demonstrating in favor of the Vietnam War and campaigning for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater for the 1964 election. For some reason, his political beliefs started changing the following year; he even got a job as a bartender at a gay bar. During his final year, there were rumors that he enjoyed bondage. According to a roommate, Kraft would disappear a few times a week and then return at strange hours. He also suffered from stomach pains and migraines and frequently took Valium to treat it. In 1966, he was arrested for lewd behavior when he solicited an undercover officer, but was let off with a warning since it was his first offense. He apparently became more open about his homosexuality, spending most of his free time in gay bars. He also fell behind with his academic work due to his late night habits and had to retake one of his courses in order to earn his bachelor's degree in economics. When another presidential election started approaching, Kraft supported the Democratic candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, and was devastated when he was assassinated. He was briefly stationed at the Edwards Air Force Base, but was discharged on "medical" grounds in 1969 when he came out of the closet and became a bartender full-time. Kraft later became a computer programmer. In the 1970s, during his murders, Kraft would often go to a local Marine base. Killings, Capture and Incarceration During the 1970s and 1980s, the victims of Kraft were among the many dead bodies found near highways in California. While the investigators believed the murders to be the work of a single serial killer, who was dubbed "The Highway Killer", there were two other perpetrators, William Bonin and Patrick Kearney, besides Kraft, who was the last of the three to be caught (see below). In all cases, the victims were males who suffered some kind of sexual abuse and torture before being killed. Kraft's killings are believed to have started in 1971, the victim being Wayne Joseph Dukette, though Kraft was never convicted of his murder. He was first arrested on suspicion of murder when the severed head of one of his victims, Keith Crotwell, was found near the Long Beach Marina. Since he had been seen getting into a car revealed to be Kraft's, he was questioned as a suspect, but he claimed he let him ride along with him and then let him off at an all-night café. Kraft was released due to a lack of evidence. He was caught for the last time, just after 1:00 a.m. on May 14, 1983, when the California Highway Patrol pulled him over for driving under the influence. When the officers looked into his car, they saw a man who appeared to be sleeping in the back seat. When they opened it, they found him to be dead, with obvious signs of foul play. The man was Terry Gambrel, a 25-year-old Marine officer and Kraft's final victim, and had been strangled with his own belt. When a search warrant for the car was obtained and carried out, the police found tranquilizers and prescription drugs inside as well as an envelope containing 47 photographs of young men, most of them either dead or seemingly asleep, in pornographic poses. There was also a lot of blood on the passenger seat, even though Gambrel didn't have any lacerations on his body. When Kraft's home was searched as well, more evidence was found, including possessions of murder victims and Kraft's "score-card", on which he listed his victims by strange nicknames related to their locations or personal habits, such as "Deoderant", "New Year's Eve" and "Iowa". Kraft claimed the terms on the list referred to sexual encounters he'd had and other mundane things. In the end, Kraft was charged with 16 murders, among them a John Doe nicknamed as "Airplane Hill" on the "score-card" who wasn't identified until 1995, his real name being Kevin Clark Bailey. He was found guilty on all counts as well as some other related charges of sodomy and torture. At first, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was upheld in 2000. He once pursued a lawsuit against a true crime writer who had written a book about his case, Angel of Darkness, as well as his publisher for $62 million in damages, claiming that the way he was portrayed in the book had smeared his "good name" and hurt his "prospects for future employment". Needless to say, the lawsuit was dismissed as frivolous. Kraft continues to serve his sentence at the San Quentin death row to this day. Modus Operandi Kraft targeted young men and teenage boys, usually hitchhikers, runaways, or men he picked up in gay bars. A number of his victims were military officers who were hitchhiking. After picking them up, he would drug them and/or get them drunk, torture and sexually abuse them, and kill them, usually by strangulation or with a combination of torture and drugs. He took photos of his victims while they were unconscious or even dead and would keep a record of his victims (hence his nickname). The bodies were dumped near highways. Some of his confirmed and suspected victims were found with some object inserted into their rectums, most often a sock. The victims were also often found barefoot, sometimes fully clothed everywhere else; some suspect that Kraft did this because of a foot fetish. Sometimes, Kraft also bit his victims, usually on and/or around the genitals or the nipples, tortured them by burning them with a car cigarette lighter, and castrated them post- or ante-mortem. Known Victims Note: The dates denote when the victims were found Confirmed Murders for which Kraft was convicted *December 26, 1972: Edward Daniel Moore, 20 *1973: **April 9: Kevin Clark Bailey 18 **July 28: Ronnie Gene Wiebe, 20 *July 30, 1975: Keith Daven Crotwell, 19 *January 3, 1976: Mark Howard Hall, 22 *1978: **February 12: ***Geoffrey Alan Nelson, 18 ***Roger James DeVaul, 20 **April 16: Scott Michael Hughes, 18 **June 19: Richard Allen Keith, 20 **July 8: Keith Arthur Klingbiel, 23 **July 28: Roland Gerald Young, 23 **November 18: Michael Joseph Inderbieten, 20 *June 19, 1979: Donnie Harold Crisel, 20 *September 3, 1980: Robert Wyatt Loggins, 19 *1983: **January 27: Eric Herbert Church, 21 **May 14: Terry Lee Gambrel, 25 Alleged/Suspected Names from Kraft's score-card and other victims suspected to be his *October 5, 1971: Wayne Joseph Dukette, 30 *1973: **February 6: "Wilmington" **April 22: "Hawth Off Head" **December 29: Vincent Cruz Mestas, 23 *1974: **June 2: Malcolm Eugene Little, 20 **June 22: Roger E. Dickerson, 18 **August 3: Thomas Paxton Lee, 25 **August 12: Gary Wayne Cordova, 23 **November 27: James Dale Reeves, 19 *January 4, 1975: John William Leras, 17 *December 12, 1976: Paul Joseph Fuchs, 19 *September 30, 1978: Richard A. Crosby, 20 *1979: **August 29: "76" **September 14: Gregory Wallace Jolley, 20 **November 24: Jeffrey Bryan Sayre, 15 *1980: **February 18: Mark Alan Marsh, 20 **April 10: Michael Duane Cluck, 18 **July 17: Michael Shawn O'Fallon, 17 **July 18: "Portland Eck" *August 20, 1981: Christopher R. Williams, 17 *1982: **July 29: ***Robert Avila, 16 ***Raymond Davis, 13 **November 28: Brian Harold Witcher, 26 **December 9: ***Lance Trenton Taggs, 19 ***Dennis Patrick Alt, 20 ***Christopher Alan Schoenborn, 20 **December 18: Anthony Jose Silveira, 29 *January 19, 1984: Mikeal Laine, 24 *Unspecified dates: Craig Victor Jonaites, 24 *Unknown victims and dates: **"Angel" **"Hari Kari" **"Marine Down" **"Van Driveaway" **"In 1 MV TO PL" **"LB Marina" **"Diabetic" **"Portland" **"Navy White" **"User" **"Iowa" **"In 1 Hitch" **"Front of Ripples" **"Carpenter" **"MC Dump HB Short" **"MC Plants" **"England" **"Oil" **"What You Got" Notes *Kraft was one of the three "Freeway Killers" active in Calfornia in the 1970s. The other two were William Bonin, who targeted boys in their early- to late-teens, raped and tortured them, and then killed them as means of silencing them; and Patrick Kearney, a.k.a. "The Trash Bag Killer", who targeted males aged 8-28, shot them to death, mutilated their bodies, and engaged in necrophilia with them. On Criminal Minds Kraft was mentioned by Reid in Closing Time when it's noted that he mutilated his victims in a fashion similar to the way the UnSub at hand did to his, as he also castrated his victims. Coincidentally, both killers also worked as bartenders; whether or not this similarity was intentional currently remains unknown. Also, while Kraft wasn't mentioned in The Last Word, the fact that he was active at the same time as Patrick Kearney and William Bonin seems to be one of the many inspirations for the episode's prominent unsubs, The Mill Creek Killer and The Hollow Man. Sources *Wikipedia's article about Kraft *TruTV's articles about Kraft *''LA Times'': **List of Kraft's victims **Article about Kraft's conviction **Article about "Airplane Hill" *Crime Magazine article about Kraft *DUI Defense page about Kraft's victims Category:Real People Category:Real Life Killers Category:Real Serial Killers Category:Real Life Rapists